BOXING History + Stories

[mal]

Johnny Jarrett stayed in the Challa Gardens pub
That pub has the distinction of being the pub that Ive consumed more beers than any other pub in the universe

Is that the reason for the interest in boxing? Self preservation?

No
My mate was a regular, I tagged along for a few visits
In those days I was a gambler not a fighter ....

[robranisgod]

Sadly one of Australia's greatest ever indigenous boxers, Hector Thompson has passed away.
Hector twice fought for the World Championship and mixed it for 8 rounds with the great Roberto Duran. Many good judges had Hector in front when the referee stopped the fight.
Many of us saw Hector fight on TV because his career coincided with the halcyon days of TV ringside.

[mal]

R.I.P
Hector Thompson

I had always thought that Thompson was in the category of the best indigenous boxers
Hers my rankings of the best indigenous boxers I have seen [cant include Dave Sands who by reports was a great boxer as never saw him]
1 Lionel Rose
2 Mundine Senior
3 Hector Thompson
4 Mundine Junior

Lionel Rose at his peak gets my vote
Hector Thompson was almost as good , in my opinion
87 bouts
73 wins
2 draws
12 lost
His record was imposing up until his last 12 fights when he won 6 lost 6

Thomson fought for 2 world titles losing both to the outstanding Roberto Duran and Antonio Cervantes
I have watched the Duran v Thompson fight , Thomson was gallant, from what I saw Duran was a clear winner until the 8th round TKO
The other opinion was that Thomson was a boxer and was not a hard enough puncher
He hit hard enough as far as Im concerned
Duran had a badly swollen eye, and a broken rib
It was a good fight to watch, a distinct lack of clinching
Thomson was later to state that had the ref not stopped the fight he would have won


2 other boxers unfortunately lost their lives fighting Thompson, Rocco Spanja and Chuck Wilburn , both were knocked out and both did not regain consciousness
That must have been a terrible burden for Thomson to carry from that point onwards in his career
Hector lost his life on 20/5/2020
43 years earlier on 20/5/1977 he fought on his death date when he defeated Ross Eadie

I used to watch Hector Thomson on TV ringside
Both the boxer and the TV show were great
My favorite commentator was Merv Williams

[robranisgod]

Merv Williams, what a character and a great man. He was the Sporting Globes chief boxing correspondent.

The old Channel 7 boss and North Melbourne President, Ron Casey was the main broadcaster and Merv Williams was the expert on TV Ringside.

Merv had many a colourful turn of phrase. I heard him describe one boxer as being as slow as a draught horse with fallen arches and another as slow as treacle running uphill on a cold and frosty morning.

He would have been 70 years of age when he was giving his opinions but he was as sharp as a tack.

He was a homespun special comments man similar I guess in style to Jimmy Deane and Tommy Hafey in Footy and Les Favell in cricket.

The attached article gives an insight into the great man who was Merv Williams.

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/william ... merv-12035

[mal]

Theres a lot of top 10 to 50 listings of who are 'the greatest ' Heavyweight boxers of all time
Ive decided on Bert Sugar who is an impressive boxing historian

1 Joe Louis
2 Muhammad Ali
3 Jack Dempsey
4 Jack Johnson
5 Gene Tunney
6 Rocky Marciano
7 Ezzard Charles
8 George Foreman
9 Joe Frazier
10 Larry Holmes


Some great boxers who didnt make Berts top 10 list include :
John L Sullivan until he fought Errol Flynn ....
Ken Norton may not make anyones top 10 , but I thought he was great boxer, his 3 fights against Ali the basis of my opinion
Mike Iron Tyson from what Ive seen must be a top 10 candidate
Evander Holyfield who has beaten Foreman and Holmes in his career , but the 2 other champs were in the twilight of their careers
Lennox Lewis was impressive but not top 10 for mine
Ron Lyle started boxing in 1971 when he was 30 years old , this is purely speculative , had he started earlier he may have been a heavyweight champ, he had a shot at the title in 1975 when he was 33 years old and lost against Muhammad Ali

[mal]

Muhammad Ali v Sonny Liston
25/5/1965

In this fight we had 3 Heavyweight Champions in the ring for the duration of the fight
Ali was the champ
Liston the ex champ was the challenger
Jersey Joe Walcott was the champ in the 1950s for a while, was the referee in this fight

[mal]

Watched a movie recently
As I often do i review the actors/actresses
The movie was The Corpse Vanishes [1942]
One of the actors was Frank Moran
He played the part of Angel,
He didnt look like an angel, he played the part of a misfit, the type that would scare me in the Deadly Earnest TV shows days

FRANK MORAN
Was a heavyweight boxer as well as an actor
He made his boxing debut on this day 1/6/1908 with a KO win over Fred Cooley
Moran fought twice for the Heavyweight Championship
He lost both times to a couple of very talented boxers of that era , Jack Johnson and Jess Willard

The Corpse Vanishes was shown on the Schlocky Horror Picture Show
The host is the lightweight Nigel Honeybone
Honeybone regularly humorously criticises the standard of the movies he presents
The movie The Corpse Vanishes is not considered a Box office Hit

[mal]

SUGAR RAY LEONARD[26-0] V ROBERTO DURAN[71-1]
They didnt fall in Montreal
20/6/1980

This is close to the 40th year anniversary of this slugfest
Duran won
146-144
147-147
145-145

I got this one slightly wrong
I had Leonard winning 6-5 in rounds, the last round was my decider
Duran clobbered Leonard early and I had Duran up 3-0 after 4 rounds
I thought from that point Leonard finished sligthly the better
I did have a lot of close rounds, knew it was close
Have no problem with Duran getting the verdict

This is what Duran had to say pre- fight
Im not here to be a clown like this guy over here.
This is the first time in his life hes going to have to get in the ring and fight

What the commentators said after round 2 referring to Leonards superb trainer Angelo Dundee after Leonard took a battering
Angelo looks worried, did they make a mistake?
They only made one mistake, they signed this fight

This what Leonard said after the fight in an interview , Ive edited it
I hate that son of a bitch
He cursed me
He cursed my wife
Try and beat him at his own game, it was stupid, really stupid
He got into my head BIG time
He was so aggressive hes a Tasmanian devil, Ive never had a fight that physical

What Duran had to say after the fight,when Duran was asked if Leonard was the best he ever fought
He does have a heart, thats why hes living

It was a great great fight
No one deserved to lose
Roberto Duran looked like the bull in a rodeo after the bell rang to end the fight
He appeared to abuse Leonard
He motioned to another fighter Wilfred Benitez ringside and appeared to abuse him as well

There were 2 things mentioned which I need clarification
They said if the judges scored the fight even, then the champ retains the title, is this fair ?
Both sides wanted to use smelling salts during the fight, but were over-ruled, should salts have been allowed ?

[DOC]

MAL

IMHO, if it's a draw, champ retains as he was not beaten,

I have no opinion on smelling salts.

[mal]

Doc, correct
Yes thats the rules
The champ remains the champ if its a draw

DURAN V LEONARD FIGHT 2
Rematch : Cuisines in New Orleans
1980


The omen was legendary singer Ray Charles doing a rendition pre fight
So Ray Charles performed before Ray Charles Leonard fought
The 2 embraced and hugged just before the fight started

Ray Charles brawled with Duran in fight 1
In this 2nd fight its almost as if Leonards stablemate Muhummad Ali advised him on how to fight this time around
Watching this fight had a real Ali feel about it
Leonard danced and boxed Aliesque and dominated the fight
The first 6 rounds I had Leonard leading 4-1

Round 7 was humiliating for Duran as he was ridiculed and mesmerized by Leonard in a very very Aliesque manner
This is what Leonard said post fight
" When I looked him in the eyes I saw defeat and thats when I started sticking my chin out at him and Duran wasent liking this"
Leonard would stick his chin out, drop his gloves and invite Duran to swing at him

Round 8 got worse for Duran
Duran turned his back on Leonard and told the ref to stop the fight
Leonard won by TKO

i had the fight in Leonards favor 6-1 in rounds before the stoppage


In fight 1 Duran paraded after the fight and was very animated
After this fight i was surprised that how calm he was and he hugged Leonard
Duran a broken man
Leonard , who said he was senseless from a hard punch , from rd 2 to rd 5 in the first fight , had got his revenge

Post fight
Duran [excuse for losing]
Said he had stomach cramps, he lost weight too quick and then ate too much after weigh in

Leonard[on why Duran quit]
" Its redemption , I made him do that"

Durans manager
" Duran didnt quit because of stomach cramps he quit because he was embarrassed."

Im not sure they were choice words by the trainer
Duran must have been in duress to quit as he did
He was a helluva boxer

Ive mentioned the omen of singer Ray Charles and boxer Ray Charles Leonard
Would not have been an omen had Simon Le Bon performed pre-fight ...

[mal]

R I P Johhny Famechon [77]
At one stage the World Featherweight Champion.

These are my memories of the champ, of whom I followed his career very closely
One the greatest defensive fighters this country has produced, his evasive skills were quite amazing.
Johnny quit the ring whilst still in great boxing form, whilst he still had all his faculties in tact , he left the ring in good shape
He got out probably to avoid the punch drunk syndrome
He was involved in a car accident in the early 1990's that left him struggling
It made this accident even sadder given that he had been World champ and retired virtually unmarked.

Johhny was my favourite Ozzie boxer

[DOC]

Listened to Harry Garside talk about him.

Said that he would go all day and night, first bout to last, for juniors, offer encouragement and advice to all, hand out the prizes, etc. Had only just been awarded an Order of Australia for his dedication.

A true legend.

[Jim05]

That was very good by Tim. Took a whole 71 seconds to destroy the fool. Charlo would be shitting bricks

[Wedgie]

Geezus, that boy can hit someone!

[tigerpie]

He's a machine.
Charlo be a bigger challenge but I think Tim will walk straight through him.

[amber_fluid]

Is there a more farcical sport than boxing?
All the hype and bullshit talking for a sport that lasted 60 seconds.

[tigerpie]

Is there a more farcical sport than boxing?
All the hype and bullshit talking for a sport that lasted 60 seconds.

Getting punched in the face is not what I'd call farcical.
Then you get a 12 round battle next fight.

[Jim05]

Is there a more farcical sport than boxing?
All the hype and bullshit talking for a sport that lasted 60 seconds.

It’s a brilliant sport but yes a lot of guys talk the talk but can’t walk the walk.
Tim hopefully knocked a bit of humility into him

[tigerpie]

Is there a more farcical sport than boxing?
All the hype and bullshit talking for a sport that lasted 60 seconds.

It’s a brilliant sport but yes a lot of guys talk the talk but can’t walk the walk.
Tim hopefully knocked a bit of humility into him

Knocked him into retirement or at least shitty undercard fights for pennies.
Pretty ordinary effort from a so called contender.

[amber_fluid]

Is there a more farcical sport than boxing?
All the hype and bullshit talking for a sport that lasted 60 seconds.

Getting punched in the face is not what I'd call farcical.
Then you get a 12 round battle next fight.

It’s a ridiculous sport.
The rest of the sporting fraternity are protecting the head and brain from long term injury yet boxing continues to allow boxers to pound each others head in.